Breakthrough North Korean Nuclear Talks!

Tentative North Korea nuclear accord reached

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said the draft agreement still must be reviewed by the home governments of the six countries at the talks, but he was upbeat about it. He said he was in “constant communication” with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “We feel it’s an excellent draft, I don’t think we’re the problem.”

North Korea did not immediately make any public comment, but South Korea’s envoy Chun Yung-woo said he believed the proposal would be acceptable to Pyongyang.

Chun said the five other countries agreed to evenly share the energy aid outlined under the deal.

However, Japan was more noncommittal. Its envoy, Kenichiro Sasae, said it was “too early to tell” whether Tokyo was satisfied.

…
Chinese envoy Wu Dawei told a visiting Japanese lawmaker that North Korea had agreed to shut down its main nuclear reactor and submit a list of its atomic facilities.

Under a 1994 U.S.-North Korea disarmament agreement, the North was to receive 500,000 tons of fuel oil a year before construction was completed of two nuclear reactors that would be able to generate 2 million kilowatts of electricity.

That deal fell apart in late 2002 when the U.S. accused the North of conducting a secret uranium enrichment program, sparking the latest nuclear crisis.

Former U.S. ambassador Bolton raps North Korea nuclear talks

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

4 Comments

Limelite on February 13, 2007 at 12:26 am

in the history of the Bush administration: a diplomatic effort requiring skill, persistance, and patience that pays off big time.

I see the hand of Condi Rice at work here. Finally, she does some diplomacy instead of water hauling for the president.

idredit on February 13, 2007 at 10:02 am

Don’t buy into the Bush spin. This is the same deal reached with the Clinton Administration that Bush scuttled upon coming into office.

Heard on BBC News World Update, World News (NPR) at 5:00 AM this morning, were various interviews on this ‘breaking news.’ Among those interviewed were: Mr. Hoare, former British Ambassador to North Korea, a spokesman for the Nautilus Institute in South Korea and a clip from Christopher Hill, U.S. under-Secretary of State. Hill is satisfied because he and principals need a good news sound bite,

While Ambassador Hoare said “the devil is in the details…they (North Korea) appear to have walked away with enriched uranium facilities, but essentially the same agreement reached by Clinton. The spokesman for South Korea Nautilus Institute said “it’s back to square, one minus one…North Korea won, got the same Clinton deal but with the added plutonium.”

Bush can’t take credit for here. No matter how loud they crow, they’ve eaten crow.

Oui on February 13, 2007 at 2:41 pm

North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament

The steps for now do not involve providing 2,000 megawatts of electricity — at an estimated cost of $8.55 billion over 10 years and about equal to North Korea’s current output — that South Korea pledged in September 2005 and which is due after North Korea’s denuclearization is completed.

The deal faces a tricky path to fruition amid profound distrust between North Korea and its would-be donors.

North Korea stepped down the path to nuclear disarmament before, in a 1994 agreement with the Clinton administration collapsed in 2002 after Washington accused Pyongyang of seeking to produce weapons-grade uranium.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

idredit on February 15, 2007 at 1:46 pm

Interesting these:

North Korea Nuclear Agreement: Annotated–Foreign Policy in Focus

“North Korea had scarcely changed its position since the Beijing talks began – or indeed since it entered the Geneva Agreements with Clinton. It had always been ready for a freeze, leading to step-by-step de-nuclearization, but only as part of a process leading to security and normalization.”

The unspecified issue here is the highly enriched uranium (HEU) program that the United States accused North Korea of pursuing in 2002. Essentially, the Bush administration gave up the existing freeze on North Korea’s plutonium facilities, as mandated under the 1994 Agreed Framework, in order to pursue the nuclear will-o-the-wisp of the HEU program. Although Pyongyang has largely denied the existence of this program, U.S. government officials say that they’ve known about North Korean attempts to develop a second path to nuclear weapons since the late 1990s. Now the question will be whether the Bush administration will insist early in the process that North Korea admit to the HEU program or whether, in the interests of maintaining the plutonium program freeze, it will fudge the issue until a point in the future when the two countries trust each other more..[.]

and from North Korea’s perspective it was; “Just in time, a birthday gift for Kim Jong-il” as

“Bush waves a white flag.”
By Kim Myong-chol (“unofficial” spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea)-Asia Times

{Warning: loaded spin}

“Two things combine to make this 65th birthday anniversary and the Lunar New Year most auspicious. The first is that Kim has led the DPRK to score a fifth straight bloodless victory over the world’s sole superpower by “outsmarting the US in the game of nuclear bluff” as The Sunday Times in London put it on February 4. He has emerged the first national hero in the 5,000 years of Korean history to fulfill the long-elusive ambition of the Korean people to acquire military capabilities to take the war from the Land of Morning Calm to the heart of the metropolitan USA.[.]

The most significant fact about the six-party talks that ended this Tuesday is US President George W Bush waving a white flag, offering to allow the DPRK to retain its nuclear arsenal as it is. It means the shared recognition of the five parties and the DPRK as a nuclear-weapons state and the US notice that it would lift its financial crackdown on the Korean state. [.]

One may well ask. Was a new, newer ‘Agreement’ reached or did both sides need a good news sound bite?

Limelite on February 13, 2007 at 12:26 am

in the history of the Bush administration: a diplomatic effort requiring skill, persistance, and patience that pays off big time.

I see the hand of Condi Rice at work here. Finally, she does some diplomacy instead of water hauling for the president.
- idredit on February 13, 2007 at 10:02 am
  
  Don’t buy into the Bush spin. This is the same deal reached with the Clinton Administration that Bush scuttled upon coming into office.
  
  Heard on BBC News World Update, World News (NPR) at 5:00 AM this morning, were various interviews on this ‘breaking news.’ Among those interviewed were: Mr. Hoare, former British Ambassador to North Korea, a spokesman for the Nautilus Institute in South Korea and a clip from Christopher Hill, U.S. under-Secretary of State. Hill is satisfied because he and principals need a good news sound bite,
  
  While Ambassador Hoare said “the devil is in the details…they (North Korea) appear to have walked away with enriched uranium facilities, but essentially the same agreement reached by Clinton. The spokesman for South Korea Nautilus Institute said “it’s back to square, one minus one…North Korea won, got the same Clinton deal but with the added plutonium.”
  
  Bush can’t take credit for here. No matter how loud they crow, they’ve eaten crow.
Oui on February 13, 2007 at 2:41 pm

.

North Korea agrees to nuclear disarmament

The steps for now do not involve providing 2,000 megawatts of electricity — at an estimated cost of $8.55 billion over 10 years and about equal to North Korea’s current output — that South Korea pledged in September 2005 and which is due after North Korea’s denuclearization is completed.

The deal faces a tricky path to fruition amid profound distrust between North Korea and its would-be donors.

North Korea stepped down the path to nuclear disarmament before, in a 1994 agreement with the Clinton administration collapsed in 2002 after Washington accused Pyongyang of seeking to produce weapons-grade uranium.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
- idredit on February 15, 2007 at 1:46 pm
  
  Interesting these:
  
  North Korea Nuclear Agreement: Annotated–Foreign Policy in Focus
  
  “North Korea had scarcely changed its position since the Beijing talks began – or indeed since it entered the Geneva Agreements with Clinton. It had always been ready for a freeze, leading to step-by-step de-nuclearization, but only as part of a process leading to security and normalization.”
  
  The unspecified issue here is the highly enriched uranium (HEU) program that the United States accused North Korea of pursuing in 2002. Essentially, the Bush administration gave up the existing freeze on North Korea’s plutonium facilities, as mandated under the 1994 Agreed Framework, in order to pursue the nuclear will-o-the-wisp of the HEU program. Although Pyongyang has largely denied the existence of this program, U.S. government officials say that they’ve known about North Korean attempts to develop a second path to nuclear weapons since the late 1990s. Now the question will be whether the Bush administration will insist early in the process that North Korea admit to the HEU program or whether, in the interests of maintaining the plutonium program freeze, it will fudge the issue until a point in the future when the two countries trust each other more..[.]
  
  and from North Korea’s perspective it was; “Just in time, a birthday gift for Kim Jong-il” as
  
  “Bush waves a white flag.”
  By Kim Myong-chol (“unofficial” spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea)-Asia Times
  
  {Warning: loaded spin}
  
  “Two things combine to make this 65th birthday anniversary and the Lunar New Year most auspicious. The first is that Kim has led the DPRK to score a fifth straight bloodless victory over the world’s sole superpower by “outsmarting the US in the game of nuclear bluff” as The Sunday Times in London put it on February 4. He has emerged the first national hero in the 5,000 years of Korean history to fulfill the long-elusive ambition of the Korean people to acquire military capabilities to take the war from the Land of Morning Calm to the heart of the metropolitan USA.[.]
  
  The most significant fact about the six-party talks that ended this Tuesday is US President George W Bush waving a white flag, offering to allow the DPRK to retain its nuclear arsenal as it is. It means the shared recognition of the five parties and the DPRK as a nuclear-weapons state and the US notice that it would lift its financial crackdown on the Korean state. [.]
  
  One may well ask. Was a new, newer ‘Agreement’ reached or did both sides need a good news sound bite?

Breakthrough North Korean Nuclear Talks!

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